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# Five Years
- URL: https://blog.novaugust.net/five-years/
- Published: 2016-10-11T16:45:19.000Z
- Updated: 2016-11-16T18:32:13.000Z
- Author: Matt Enlow
- Tags: @christophertrudeau, post, @disavlynx, @erikkallman, @ken_hilton307, @redgyps, #Import 2026-06-21 14:43

Exactly five years ago this blog saw its [first blog post](https://blog.novaugust.net/hello-world/).

> ### Hello World
> 
> Hey look! A website! Time to run off to school, but nice to see this guy is up.
> 
> *11 October 2011*

Although actually, it wasn't *this* blog, but a Wordpress blog (I'm running on software I helped build called "Ghost" now), and back then the website was `novaugust.net/blog`, rather than `blog.novaugust.net`.

### Year One: Japan

![](http://www.novaugust.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/yakiniku-me-and-jenn-700x466.jpg)

The blog got its start as a way to chronicle my time studying abroad in Japan for my family. As such, there are posts on [academics](https://blog.novaugust.net/tag/smarts/page/3) (nerd!) and [language](https://blog.novaugust.net/interpreter/) and [linguistics](https://blog.novaugust.net/tag/japanese/). There's also quite a few on the [everyday](https://blog.novaugust.net/the-latest-2/) [minutiae](https://blog.novaugust.net/all-tomorrows-parties/) of the life I was living.

Something that just doesn't happen anymore is posts of videos and articles from around the internet. Anymore, the only people who get promoted on this blog are [Martin](http://smaertin.com/?ref=blog.novaugust.net) and [Andrea](http://hungryhen.wordpress.com/?ref=blog.novaugust.net)...

And, of course, there were posts on skiing and climbing, which is what this site has become entirely about.

![suzuki san](http://www.novaugust.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/IMG_1536-700x525.jpg)  
*Suzuki-san, my first climbing partner in 日本.*

![fall leaves](http://www.novaugust.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/DSCN3865-700x525.jpg)  
*Yamadera, Yamagata, Japan*

![ubagatake, first round](http://www.novaugust.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/DSCN4138-700x525.jpg)  
*Ubagatake*

![japan night street](http://www.novaugust.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/413560_240655709339265_100001845144641_602484_676920158_o-700x466.jpg)  
*Zhao*

![hakkouda](http://www.novaugust.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/DSCN4231-700x525.jpg)  
*Hakkouda*

The year also put on display my penchant for travel, running all over Japan on multiple occasions - with my visiting family, with friends from Sendai, and to see friends in the Kansai region - and even jetsetting to [Korea](https://blog.novaugust.net/korea/) and Thailand.

![](http://www.novaugust.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/IMG_2195_1_c-700x525.jpeg)  
*Fushimi Inari Shrine*

![](http://www.novaugust.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/IMG_2257_1-e1350182908116-700x536.jpg)  
*My father at the Golden Pavillion, Kyoto*

![](http://www.novaugust.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/IMG_2505-700x525.jpg)  
*Miyajima*

![](http://www.novaugust.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/IMG_3791-700x525.jpg)  
Fireworks in Korea

![](http://www.novaugust.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/IMG_2575-700x525.jpg)  
*The penis beach of Railay*

Nearly 100 posts came from that year in Japan, including ones that kept rolling out after I came back in August 2012.

### Year Two: Settling Down

Once I had said all I was going to about Japan, the blog slowed down a lot.

In the next year I put my much-improved backcountry skills (thanks Japan!) to use in Colorado and Wyoming, and made a few trips up to Lander for rock climbing. My habit of taking a camera with me on these adventures was set, but I was still more likely to put them on Facebook than the blog.

So the second year of life for my blog saw a magnitude fewer posts. The ones that made it were mostly skiing, although [slice](https://blog.novaugust.net/owls-in-april/) of [life](https://blog.novaugust.net/priorities/) still made it in.

![](http://www.novaugust.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/IMG_7286-700x438.jpg)

![](http://www.novaugust.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/IMG_7301-700x437.jpg)

Ken and I spent ten days back in Thailand almost exactly a year after I was last there. That trip never did get written up, really.

![](http://www.novaugust.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/IMG_2702_1-700x393.jpg)  
*Back in Thailand almost exactly a year after the first trip*

Late in the spring I met [Andrea](https://blog.novaugust.net/park-view-spring-skiing/), a friendship I would later take advantage of on two trips to Europe in the coming years.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/95/9b955960-2312-4b04-8b46-7e66317cd0ed/content/images/2015/03/img_8044.jpg)

Oh, and it looks like I started letting my hair grow out.

### Year Three: Life, man.

A [few](https://blog.novaugust.net/wild-iris-trip-ticker/) [weekends](https://blog.novaugust.net/trip-ticker-iris-on-the-fourth/) of the summer of 2013 were spent in Lander, refocusing on climbing. That was the year that started my tradition of being in Wild Iris on [July](https://blog.novaugust.net/wildest-of-is/) [4th](https://blog.novaugust.net/the-gypsy-and-the-philosopher/).

The [climbing](https://blog.novaugust.net/lander-tics/) blog [posts](https://blog.novaugust.net/fairfield-facedancer/) from that year were the first ones to intricately describe each route I had done. I was becoming more and more of a climber...

![](http://www.novaugust.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/IMG_8529-700x525.jpg)  
*Reading the guidebook at the campsite by the shitter.*

![](http://www.novaugust.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/IMG_8509-700x394.jpg)

It seems like I started playing with editing software around this time, probably just experimenting with sliders in Google's defunct *Picasa* software.

![](http://www.novaugust.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/02-IMG_9546-700x525.jpg)

![](http://www.novaugust.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/10-IMG_9572-700x393.jpg)

That summer I graduated from my six-and-a-half-year-long undergraduate program and went to Europe for the first time to climb (a little) and visit all the friends I had made while in Japan and Thailand. I only ever managed to write up the part of my trip in England, though I also spent time in France (climbing) and Sweden (friends).

![](http://www.novaugust.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/1098230_925509466496_1175913593_n-700x466.jpg)

![](http://www.novaugust.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/IMG_9227-e1379447386287-450x600.jpg)  
*Guess where*

Maybe for the first time, I tried to be a photographer.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/95/9b955960-2312-4b04-8b46-7e66317cd0ed/content/images/2015/02/IMG_8894.JPG)  
*My first grass photo!??!*

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/95/9b955960-2312-4b04-8b46-7e66317cd0ed/content/images/2015/02/IMG_8954.JPG)

When I came back, I [made Lander home](https://blog.novaugust.net/two-weeks-in-lander/). In the fall and winter I wrote climbing and ski posts that for the first time look like the ones I do now. In other words, photography posts. Being "the guy with the camera" seemed to be shifting to "being the photographer".

Playing with sliders in Sinks Canyon paid off when I came back from a trip to [Utah's deserts](https://blog.novaugust.net/red-desert-part-1/) \- my first to [Indian Creek](https://blog.novaugust.net/red-desert-part-2/), where I now spend at least [two weeks a year](https://blog.novaugust.net/tag/indian-creek/).

![](http://www.novaugust.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/IMG_9731.jpg)  
*Holy god an artistically cropped photo!*

![](http://www.novaugust.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/IMG_9762-700x394.jpg)  
*Atop Easter Island*

![](http://www.novaugust.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/10-IMG_9822-700x525.jpg)  
*Generic Crack*

When Winter came, Andrea was back in the states, along with her boyfriend Martin. They spent the cold months [skiing](across-from-two-oceans/) in [Jackson, WY](https://blog.novaugust.net/disappointment-peak/), and I managed to get in on some of the [action](https://blog.novaugust.net/shadow-peak/). I now chat with Martin on a weekly frequency across the ocean, although our friendship probably didn't *really* mature until I went back to Europe again the next year.

![](http://www.novaugust.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/07-IMG_9951-700x394.jpg)

![](http://www.novaugust.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/02-IMG_9850-700x525.jpg)

![](http://hungryhen.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/img_5533.jpg?w=1200)

Life in Lander had started optimistically, but workplace friction, my failure to make local friends, the end of a relationship, injury, and finally surgery put a new perspective on life. Early in the summer I went to Jackson for work on a two month stint. In my last week there, with my knee finally recovered enough to to go mountain biking, I did.

And promptly [shattered my collarbone](https://blog.novaugust.net/knees-shoulders-and-gore/) on my first ride.

At the end of my tenure in Jackson I went [back to Lander](https://blog.novaugust.net/leaving-jackson/), gave my two weeks, and [moved](https://blog.novaugust.net/welcome-back-to-jackson/) to [Jackson](https://blog.novaugust.net/tag/jackson/).

![](http://www.novaugust.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/IMG_0725.jpg)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/95/9b955960-2312-4b04-8b46-7e66317cd0ed/content/images/2014/09/1-IMG_0560.JPG)

![](http://www.novaugust.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/IMG_0687-700x525.jpg)

### Year Four: Jackson

Fall picked up speed fast in 2014\. The collarbone healed surprisingly quickly, and for the first time in nearly a year I was a rock [climber](https://blog.novaugust.net/familiar-crags-and-strange-people/) [again](https://blog.novaugust.net/hello-blacktail-butte/)!

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/95/9b955960-2312-4b04-8b46-7e66317cd0ed/content/images/2014/10/2-IMG_1240-1.JPG)  
*The Tetons from Blacktail Butte*

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/95/9b955960-2312-4b04-8b46-7e66317cd0ed/content/images/2014/10/1-WP_20141015_011-1.jpg)  
*Top. Rope. Hero.*

It was my season of alpine. Dave Goldman and I hiked into the [cirque](https://blog.novaugust.net/i-went-into-the-cirque/) \- and right back out again when we got snow dumped on us.

![](http://www.novaugust.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/IMG_0831-700x525.jpg)

![](http://www.novaugust.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/IMG_0855-001-700x525.jpg)

![](http://www.novaugust.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/IMG_0897-700x525.jpg)

New friends in Jackson helped me see the best side of the Tetons.

![](http://www.novaugust.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/4-download_20140918_085550-700x525.jpg)  
*[Baxter's Pinnacle](https://blog.novaugust.net/a-bit-of-fall-climbing/) with Hunter and Suzanne*

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/95/9b955960-2312-4b04-8b46-7e66317cd0ed/content/images/2014/09/11-IMG_1121.jpg)  
*[Symmetry Spire](https://blog.novaugust.net/symmetry-spire/) with Matt Ward*

Best of all, I reunited with Ken in Vedauwoo that fall after a hiatus in our friendship.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/95/9b955960-2312-4b04-8b46-7e66317cd0ed/content/images/2014/11/IMG_1295.JPG)  
On October 11th (holy shit that's today! The blogiversary!) I got an email from one *Christopher Trudeau*.

> Sorry if this is a repeat request, but do you wan \[sic\] to get out and climb this fall?

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/95/9b955960-2312-4b04-8b46-7e66317cd0ed/content/images/2016/10/Screen-Shot-2016-10-11-at-10.05.44-AM.png)

Thus began a friendship that has, in the two ensuing years, totally ~~ruined~~ changed my life.

Speaking of friendships made that year, the first Creeksgiving happened.

![The creeksgiving crew](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/95/9b955960-2312-4b04-8b46-7e66317cd0ed/content/images/2014/12/1-IMG_1554-001.JPG)

The blog really picked up steam that year, with [tons](https://blog.novaugust.net/teton-pass/) and [tons](https://blog.novaugust.net/early-winters-ins-and-outs/) of [ski](https://blog.novaugust.net/santa-brought-snow/) [posts](https://blog.novaugust.net/rumors-of-my-demise/) rolling in as I did tons and tons of skiing. Trudeau became my number one ski partner and gave me the grand tour of Teton Pass. Meanwhile, my work had bought me a season pass to Jackson Hole Mountain Resort.

You'll get pretty good at skiing living in Jackson.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/95/9b955960-2312-4b04-8b46-7e66317cd0ed/content/images/2014/12/1-10848851_10152942125107363_7719499442214946677_o.jpg)

In summary of my first year in Jackson:

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/95/9b955960-2312-4b04-8b46-7e66317cd0ed/content/images/2015/04/P1020461.jpg)

#### Europe

The spring of 2015 I was [back in Europe](https://blog.novaugust.net/europe-itinerary/), this time for two months. I took thousands of photos, which means I got at least two good ones.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/95/9b955960-2312-4b04-8b46-7e66317cd0ed/content/images/2015/05/P1040526.jpg)

Unlike my previous trip to Europe, I did a great job of writing up each and every part of the trip, so I don't need to do that here do I? The quick summary: I have great friends.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/95/9b955960-2312-4b04-8b46-7e66317cd0ed/content/images/2015/06/DSC02761.jpg)

### Year Four: The Nomad

I didn't have a home when I came back from Europe. That was fine though, because I also didn't have a job.

The summer of 2015 was the finest that could be imagined. For the first time, three international friends - Disa, Disa, and Erik - came and visited me in my homeland. It was summarized with the video post [A Month In Wyoming](https://blog.novaugust.net/a-month-of-wyoming/). Ken and Trudeau were big parts of the summer as well, cementing two strong friendships.

I climbed endlessly that year. [Ten Sleep](https://blog.novaugust.net/ten-sleep/), [Spearfish, Devil's Tower](https://blog.novaugust.net/sendtember/), [Wild Iris](https://blog.novaugust.net/flowers-and-limestone/), [City of Rocks](https://blog.novaugust.net/meanwhile-in-the-city/), [the Tetons](https://blog.novaugust.net/teton-cragging/), [Sinks Canyon, Indian Creek, Shelf Road](https://blog.novaugust.net/rocktober/). All of that practice and Trudeau's mentoring took my sport climbing from 10+ to 12-, and my trad from 9 to 11+.

Horay.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/95/9b955960-2312-4b04-8b46-7e66317cd0ed/content/images/2015/10/P3090058.jpg)

In its fourth year of life, slice-of-life posts disappeared from my blog. This is probably because my life *was* climbing, skiing and photography. There wasn't anything else. I was in so many beautiful places for so long that every post was sure to have some great shots in it. [My photography obviously improved that year.](https://blog.novaugust.net/2015-portfolio/)

As money began to run out in late November I once again became a working man, but minimally so. I worked with my friend Jeremy as a consulting team, and didn't personally bill more than ten hours a week in the first two months.

I had a short but great ski season. January's trip to [Roger's Pass](https://blog.novaugust.net/tag/rogers-pass/) was so good that I didn't feel like I needed to do any more.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/95/9b955960-2312-4b04-8b46-7e66317cd0ed/content/images/2016/01/P3150899.jpg)

In February, house sitting my friends' parent's place in Jackson, I dove into work, programming from before the sun was up to well after it was down. The money I made that month later became a down payment on a sprinter van.

Two weekend trips took me to [Sinks Canyon](https://blog.novaugust.net/sinking-into-things/); the first was with Trudeau, the second with Hilton. While Ken and I were there I met Shane and Shaleas, who became fixtures of my summer later.

At the end of February I had shoulder surgery in an attempt to fix my (rebroken a year before) clavicle. I went to Laramie to recuperate, but didn't give it much time before I was hanging off ropes again in [Fremont Canyon](https://blog.novaugust.net/fremont-canyon/).

Something rather unique in adult life happened there: I met a large group of folks from Laramie and immediately felt like they were all friends. They are called "[the Gypses](https://blog.novaugust.net/tag/gypses/)", and were a pivotal part of my spring and summer in Laramie.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/95/9b955960-2312-4b04-8b46-7e66317cd0ed/content/images/2016/04/P3190185.jpg)

#### Laramie

Sixteen posts tell the story from there. Living on couches, [Laramie](https://blog.novaugust.net/laramizing/) became home. Doubly so when I started dating and realized I had been in town for the better part of [half a year](https://blog.novaugust.net/the-laramie-local/).

When I had recovered from surgery I immediately got back on the rocks and started climbing [stronger than ever before](https://blog.novaugust.net/moments-of-fleeting-success/), feeling comfortable on 12s. I doubled down on photography, [launching a site](http://novaugust.photography/?ref=blog.novaugust.net) in the hopes that someone will buy my photos and thereby justify the fact that I'm now writing-off all my photography equipment on my taxes.

Then, more and more, I felt like I had to leave Laramie. There's still nomad in me. I'm not done traveling just yet.

#### Year Five

Stay tuned.